Last Action Hero *** (1993, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Austin O’Brien, F Murray Abraham, Art Carney, Charles Dance) – Classic Movie Review 2582

Producer-director John McTiernan’s comedy sci-fi action adventure thriller was supposed to be the 1993 summer blockbuster but Jurassic Park stole much of its thunder and its business. Unfairly, and unexpectedly, it severely damaged Arnold Schwarzenegger’s box-office cred, and his film career never really fully recovered, nor that of its esteemed director. It was vastly costly at $70million and the lukewarm underperforming American box-office gross was under $50million.

Perhaps the problem is that is focuses too much on an 11-year-old kid called Danny Madigan (Austin O’Brien), who is given a magical movie theatre ticket by his pal Nick the projectionist (Robert Prosky) that blasts him out of his cinema seat and into the new Jack Slater film he’s watching. Danny then teams up on screen with Schwarzenegger’s tough LA police sergeant Jack Slater to take on the villains in a welter of fantasy car chases, shoot outs and violence, er, strong action sequences.

The boy’s ticket falls into the villainous hands of one of Slater’s enemies, Benedict the hitman (Charles Dance), who gets hold of it and escapes into the real world. There he realises that he can kill Slater, so Arnie and the kid travel back and pursue him into the real world, and the action continues on the streets of New York, where the heroes don’t have superpowers. And then Slater tracks down a killer rampaging at the premiere of the real Arnold Schwarzenegger’s new movie.

This clever premise in Jack Penn and Adam Leff’s story is realised in breathlessly relentless and often imaginative handling by director McTiernan. The action stunts are virtually non-stop, the tone is jokey and surprisingly genial, though there’s still endless violence and shooting on show. It tries to have its cake and eat it on the question of violence but, still, it’s a reasonably tasty cake, often deliciously tasty.

All the playing is spirited and the film has got a lot of high spirits and good fun to offer, so its failure must have been a horrible shock to all involved, particularly Arnie, who was trying to respond to criticism of his violent movies by making a family-friendly caper. It has a PG13 in America for strong action sequences and a cert 15 for the UK. That’s ironic when Jurassic Park was PG13 in America and PG in the UK.

It’s also ironic that it was billed as ‘the big ticket of 93’ when it wasn’t the ticket.

Also in the cast are Anthony Quinn (as Tony Vivaldi), Ian McKellen (as Death), F Murray Abraham (as John Practice), Mercedes Ruehl (as Danny’s mom, Mrs Madigan), Frank McRae, Joan Plowright, Art Carney, Tom Noonan (as Ripper), Tina Turner, Michael V Gazzo, Rick Ducommun and Jean-Claude Van Damme.

© Derek Winnert 2015 Classic Movie Review 2582

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